So, after living life, what happens next?

The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Author: Stephen Chbosky
Year: 1999

Way back when, an author by the name of J.D Salinger wrote the classic book about teenage life, The Catcher in the Rye, a book that was about a young man that is brutally honest, frank, and yet, endearing. It seems that Chbosky's intentions were that to take the tough but wise protagonist/narrator who tells his story about life and growing up. However, I have not read Catcher, I have read Perks of Being a Wallflower and honestly, I feel that while the dialogue is very true to teenagers and that the activities that teenagers get involved in, sex, drugs and Rocky Horror are real, but after reading this slim novel, I had one burning question:

Why the hell should I care?

Granted, Perks is a book with its own cult following, one that I had heard talked about by teens for ages until I actually read the book itself, and to be honest, I am not impressed.

I read Perks when I was the age of the narrator, Charlie, I was about to start high school, so it was about the end of the year that I read the book. The story involves Charlie, a freshman who writes to an anonymous friend, one we never learn the identity of. Charlie's friend killed himself not too long ago, so Charlie's method of grieving is to cry. However, it is not long before he meets up with the cool kids and is introduced into their life, their circle of friends, their lives. Charlie has problems brewing at home, so he is just desperate to find friends and be cool, so he does. However, he also befriends a teacher who challenges him and lets him work to his full potential. In the end, his potential is pretty much a small after thought, seeing as smoking and alcohol have taken up what could make him great. And his friends are the 'good guys'.

One of my major problems does not lie in the whole aspect of a kid doing drugs, partying and living his life with older kids, I pretty much did the same growing, granted I didn't immerse myself into the drugs and alcohol subculture. However, Charlie was not me at all growing up. Reading this book, I kind of felt, dare I say, repulsed by him. He seemed less of a cool kid hanging out with the seniors, more or less the little freshman who followed around the big kids. Reading him talk about his interactions with his friends, I didn't feel jealous, I just felt like how the hell is he just coasting by life, getting friends that are anything but trustworthy, dating people who are out of his league, and as I mentioned before, the only thing I got out of this was that he gets into addiction and all of that jazz. It's rather difficult to describe my dislike for Charlie, but I just felt that because he was popular, because he went to parties, he wasn't someone I wanted to be, he wasn't my voice. For once I felt like this young teenage boy was just someone I wouldn't be friends with, making me feel like a judgmental senior, which sounds horrible, and yet, I was one of the few who felt that this book did not speak out to them.

Another gripe I had with Perks was that though it is a short, sleek novel, nothing seems to happen that is particularly important. Besides the parties, the hanging out, the drinking and smoking, all I really walked away with was not to make the same mistakes these characters did. Nothing threatened their lives, they had lousy times, but nothing really changed them, there was no eventual realization that maybe life was something important not to waste time lazing around. Call me cold, but I expecting something big to change their lives, death, AIDS, an STD, anything that made the book truly stand out as something other then a bored teen's guide to parting.

Damn, do I feel like an adult.

In a nutshell, The Perks of Being a Wallflower isn't a bad book; it's not very long, it's readable, the dialogue is believable, and there are some scenes that stand out. It's not a bad book, it just has way too much of a cult following based upon a fair young adult novel. If you want to read a book that is this, only 100 million times better is Looking for Alaska. Believe me, it blows this one out of the water and justifies my annoyance for this book.

Chicken Soup for the Orphan/Musical Protégé's Soul

Title: August Rush
Year: 2007
Starring: Freddie Highmore, Keri Russell, Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Robin Williams.

Ah, it is that time of year. The time where movies come out that are meant to warm our souls and our seats. It's the time where the ultimate drug is sentimental value and movies that lift your soul. And boy, does Hollywood have one of those movies for you.

With the season of films getting you pumped and ready for Christmas and Thanksgiving, Hollywood produces a whole bakers dozen of goods. Seeing as we are currently in November, it's the season for Christmas Movies and movies that will leave a sweet impression on your heartstrings. However, my personal beliefs are that if a movie that is just cinematic cheese that jerks tears and has no subtlety isn't my kind of family film. If a film just shows the cheery, utterly predictable meanderings of 2-dimensional characters, they why waste money on it? However, August Rush isn't fully what I mentioned, I saw it for free, so I can't complain about wasting money. I can say that seeing August Rush wasn't my first or second choice of movie to see at an advanced screening, (Margot at the Wedding was my first) but entering the theater, I said to myself "It's just a harmless movie, nothing more or less." And to be honest, I was right. But the only problem is that while it met my expectations, my expectations were that I could predict the movie's beginning, middle and end, which ended up happening. August Rush is the kind of movie that will do very well at the box office, not because it has a story, but because it will make you and your whole family feel good. Call me a Grinch, but I certainly didn't feel too dandy after I left the theater.

The whole premise of August Rush is basically Oliver Twist, a boy is stuck in an all boys orphanage, convinced his parents will come back for him. He escapes and meets an eccentric man with children who do his biddings and pick pockets. However, unlike Twist, our Oliver(or Evan as he is named in the movie) is gifted, for he is a musical protégé, he can master the sounds of music and their feelings and he is convinced music will bring his parents together. The film somehow conveys the idea that a one night stand with a rocker and a violinist is supposed to be an act of fate, not libido.

The positive side of our film's protagonist is that while he may be 15, Freddie Highmore still can captivate the viewer's eye, even if given sugary fluff as his material. And he isn't the only one who shows a good performance Robin Williams is good as the Wizard, our story's Fagan. The kids are also very talented, which helped keep my attention. And it was nice to watch Jonathan Rhys Meyers can go from playing an outright disturbing character with marital troubles(See him in the fantastic Match Point) to the lead singer of an Irish rock band. My only snipe is that Keri Russell(Who I love love loved in Waitress) does little to nothing for the story, she's wooden and dull, something Miss. Russell is not. But it is a shame to watch her not play up to her potential. Other then some good performances, the score is beautiful. There actually were moments where I said to myself, "This may actually be better then I expected" But frankly, that's really all I'll praise in August Rush. Which, considering other family films that almost lead to me clawing my eyes out, is good, I guess.

However, though it may have some shine to it, Rush is just too predictable. There were moments where I could accurately predict what would happen next to our characters, and where the story would end. This may be August Rush's biggest flaw, the realm of predictability.
For starters, there is no real conflict involved in this movie. Everything seems to be practically perfect for everyone involved. The cutesy clichéd story line overshadows anything that could have made August Rush a worthwhile movie. And personally, if I can predict the ending before watching the movie, it isn't always a bad movie. I knew that at the end of Breakfast at Tiffany's would end with Audrey Hepburn and George Peppard kissing while Moon River played, and yet I loved it. This was just, not that compelling, but then again, that's not what it's trying to be. It's a movie for sentimentalists, not for those who demand a feasible plot.

So, while I didn't love August Rush, while I found it sappy and not very good, I can't say I hated it. It's not a harmful movie, it won't murder me in my sleep. But it won't do anything for me. But then again, does it really need to?